SciFi/Fantasy Novella Review: The Prisoner of Limnos by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Prisoner of Limnos (Penric & Desdemona #6) by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Prisoner of Limnos is the sixth novella in Lois McMaster Bujold's "Penric & Desdemona" series of novellas that began with "Penric's Demon."  In addition to being the sixth novella chronologically (and published as such), it also serves as the conclusion to a story that began in "Penric's Mission" and was continued in "Mira's Last Stand," featuring Penric and Nikys one last time.  So yeah, you really shouldn't start the series here - if you haven't read Penric's Mission and Mira's Last Stand first (and of course, the series' introduction Penric's Demon), you will be hopelessly lost.





Quick Summary:  Penric is still loitering in Ordis, hoping Nikys will change her mind about his courtship, when Nikys comes to him with an urgent message - her mother is being held hostage in the secluded Island of Limnos, atop a mountain fortress dedicated to the Daughter's Order.  Penric and Nikys embark on a journey to try and rescue her, with the aid of various friends and family, but the same foes who imprisoned Adelis won't make it too easy to do so and escape.  And will Nikys change her mind about Penric in the process?  

The Prisoner of Limnos is honestly my least favorite Penric Novella.  It shares Bujold's typical witty and excellent dialogue, and the general heist plot framework is pretty fun (particularly when something goes very awry with the escape part of the plot) but it fails to do much new with the series' setup that we haven't seen in the prior two parts of the Penric & Nikys trilogy (unlike Penric's Mission and Mira's Last Dance, which do some pretty interesting things).  Overall it's fine.

What made it my least favorite of the series though is how it concludes the relationship between Nikys and Penric.  As with the prior two novellas, we alternate viewpoints between Nikys and Penric, but a substantial part of Nikys' chapters is her struggling with whether she can really be in a relationship with Penric - given the fact that it also means sharing him with Des - and features practically every other named character asking her why she hasn't agreed to marry him yet.  Given the prior two novellas, it's not surprising that Nikys might still decide to marry Pen (she was falling for him in those two, but the events of Mira's Last Dance made her balk), but it is really strange and awkward for all of these characters who barely know Pen to promptly ask Nikys this, as if she is wrongheaded for not wanting to Marry a guy they barely know.

Basically, after the last novella, which raised serious reasons why Nikys might balk, this novella tries to reverse that situation hard, and never really feels like it does the legwork to draw the two together.  I still really enjoy this novella series, but this is a bit of a miss.